Trump resists calls to disclose his tax returns

[CPUd]

Trump resists calls to disclose his tax returns

By Jeremy Diamond, CNN

(CNN) – Donald Trump continues to resist calls to release his tax returns.

The presumptive Republican nominee told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday “there’s nothing to learn from them.”

Trump’s resistance to releasing his tax returns leaves major questions for voters weighing a candidate who has staked his campaign on his business acumen and the fact that he is “very, very rich” and would mark a major break with decades of precedent set by the nominees of the two major political parties.

Despite telling conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt in February 2015 — before he declared his candidacy — he “would release tax returns,” Trump has pivoted to say he would not do so while his income tax filings are still under audit by the Internal Revenue Service. Given that he says his tax returns since 2009 are still under audit, it is highly unlikely Trump will release anything before the November 2016 election if he sticks to that reasoning.

“He still leaves himself this out by saying if this audit wraps up before the November election, then sure he’ll release his tax returns,” said Julie Pace, one of the AP reporters who interviewed him, on CNN’s “At This Hour.” “We said, ‘Will you push your lawyers on this, will you tell them that voters deserve to know this information regardless of the audit?’ He said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘One, the voters don’t actually care about this, and two, there is no new l information that would come out of the tax returns.’ “

In February, the IRS said: “Federal privacy rules prohibit the IRS from discussing individual tax matters. Nothing prevents individuals from sharing their own tax information.”

The Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday morning.

Trump has resisted pressure from Democrats and forces within his own party — most notably 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney — who have called on him to release tax returns.

The tax returns would give voters information about Trump’s effective tax rate, his charitable contributions and his income — all data points for which the billionaire has come under intense scrutiny.

Trump in late March released a letter from his tax attorneys confirming that the billionaire real estate mogul’s tax filings from 2009 onward remain under review by the IRS.

Still, Trump has also refused to release his tax returns from previous years, which are no longer under IRS audit.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/11/politics/donald-trump-tax-returns/index.html

 

[hells_unicorn]

So what? Your guy Barack Obama never released his college transcripts, sounds like it's all about even to me.

 

[Ender]

So what? Your guy Barack Obama never released his college transcripts, sounds like it's all about even to me.

Your guy?

 

[fcreature]

That's because his "beautiful" tax returns show that he's the poorest billionaire you've ever heard of.

 

[Zippyjuan]

Trump has pivoted to say he would not do so while his income tax filings are still under audit by the Internal Revenue Service. Given that he says his tax returns since 2009 are still under audit, it is highly unlikely Trump will release anything before the November 2016 election if he sticks to that reasoning.

That is a personal decision (he has been under audit for several years in a row now)- there is no legal reason he can't release them. Nixon released his while under audit.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...-tax-returns-here-are-a-few-possible-reasons/

Why won’t Trump release his tax returns? Here are a few possible reasons.

Donald Trump does not expect to release his tax returns before the November election, the Associate Press informs us today. He told the AP that he doesn’t believe voters are interested, adding: “There’s nothing to learn from them.”

Define “nothing.”

Trump: Signing My Tax Return

First, it’s possible that Trump wants to obscure his charitable giving patterns. “If he isn’t doing much charitable giving, that’s relevant, and potentially could have an impact,” Thorndike notes. “He has claimed he is a very generous philanthropist. The tax returns would demonstrate whether or not that’s actually true.”

The second possible reason is that Trump may have lots of money parked overseas, and if so, this would come out in the returns. “If you have foreign accounts, you have to disclose them and check boxes confirming you have them,” Willens tells me. “It could be embarrassing.”

Third, these experts note, it’s possible that Trump’s returns might reveal that he isn’t quite as rich as he likes to claim he is.

“I’m leaning towards the idea that he’s income poor but asset rich,” Willens says. “The tax returns wouldn’t convey that. They would only convey the shortage of income without conveying the other side of the coin, his real estate holdings.”

If there is one thing we know about Trump at this point, it is that he values being seen as a winner above all else. Trump may believe that if he is perceived as a loser (relative to his self-inflating boasts, that is), it could dramatically undercut what he believes is a winning argument for the presidency — i.e., that he is the greatest winner ever, and therefore can make America a bigger winner than it’s ever been before.

Whatever the motive here, what Trump is doing may be unprecedented in one important respect. The tradition of presidential candidates releasing their tax returns dates back to Richard Nixon. As Philip Bump documents today, Nixon released his tax returns while president, even though he was under audit. Thus, Trump — who had previously said he would not release his returns until an ongoing audit is complete, and is now suggesting he may not release them at all — is not even willing to do what Nixon did.

Worse, as Thorndike points out, Trump may well decline to release them, even though he is likely to have far more complex returns than Nixon did. “It’s disturbing,” Thorndike says. “Complexity can hide a multitude of sins. There’s going to be a lot going on in those returns, even if it is all legitimate. But we have no way of knowing whether it’s legitimate unless we can actually see them.”

Of course, Trump has broken a whole string of political rules during this campaign, so maybe he’ll get away with this one, too.

 

[Zippyjuan]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-irs-lawyers_us_56fc78c4e4b0a06d5804bd8c

Trump Lawyers Claim He’s Under ‘Continuous’ IRS Audit

As the political press focused on Donald Trump’s contradictory statements about abortion Wednesday, his campaign quietly released an unusual letter from his tax lawyers claiming the businessman has been under “continuous examination” by the IRS since 2002.

The letter, signed by Sheri Dillon and William Nelson of the firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, gives no advice to Trump on his refusal to release any of his tax returns to the public. Every presidential nominee since Jimmy Carter has publicly disclosed at least a few years of tax returns.

But the lawyers’ three-paragraph letter does provide official-sounding backup to Trump’s claims that he’s being audited, so he can’t release his returns.

Trump’s tax returns have been under “continuous examination” by the IRS since 2002, “consistent with the IRS’ practice for large and complex businesses,” the lawyers wrote.

IRS examinations of Trump’s tax returns from 2002 to 2008 have been “closed administratively,” the lawyers wrote, “without assessment or payment.” That means the examination of those returns is finished.

IRS examinations of returns for the years since 2009 are “ongoing,” the lawyers said.

But here’s the catch: The lawyers said Trump’s recent tax returns — the ones the IRS is still auditing — are just extensions of his older returns, because they include “items that are attributable to continuing transactions or activities that were also reported on returns for 2008 and earlier.”

“In this sense, the pending examinations are continuous of prior, closed examinations,” the lawyers wrote.

"Not going to release them until the audit is over". He has been "under audit" for 12 years with no end in sight. Translation: I ain't gonna let anybody look at my income taxes!"

 

[phill4paul]

You should have a look at my tax filings for the last 6 yrs. I hereby grant the IRS to release them.

 

[CPUd]

Pretty sure no one has won POTUS in the last 40 years without releasing their tax returns.

 

[CPUd]

 

[CPUd]

 

[fcreature]

So what? Your guy Barack Obama never released his college transcripts, sounds like it's all about even to me.

Why aren't these people being banned for this garbage?

 

[silverhandorder]

CPUd and zippy are you two some kind of communists? I call anyone a communist who has a problem with someone who pays no taxes.

 

[Anti Federalist]

How is this anybody's business?

 

[silverhandorder]

How is this anybody's business?

Other than communists of course.

 

[angelatc]

Why aren't these people being banned for this garbage?

Damned right. It bumped this thread only because the campaign is desperately trying to get the country to ignore the fact that Hillary is practically coughing up blood.

 

[angelatc]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-irs-lawyers_us_56fc78c4e4b0a06d5804bd8c



"Not going to release them until the audit is over". He has been "under audit" for 12 years with no end in sight. Translation: I ain't gonna let anybody look at my income taxes!"

Well, if you consider being under constant audit nobody, then...wtf is wrong with you?

 

[CPUd]

Damned right. It bumped this thread only because the campaign is desperately trying to get the country to ignore the fact that Hillary is practically coughing up blood.

false.

 

[Chester Copperpot]

GOOD IM GLAD... HE SHOULDNT HAVE TO RELEASE HIS TAXES

 

[angelatc]

GOOD IM GLAD... HE SHOULDNT HAVE TO RELEASE HIS TAXES

It's nice to see somebody with enough spine to stop letting the liberals define the rules of the damned game, that's for sure.

 

[enhanced_deficit]

I hope he doesn't say that he put his records on a computer in his garage and accidentally they got deleted. Then washer accidentally fell and bleach destroyed everything that remained.
We need transparency.